Shoulder pad



Nov. 18, 1952 J. MARTONE 2,617,993

,SHOULDER PAD Filed April 29, 1947 IN VEN TOR.

Patented Nov. 18, 1952 SHOULDER PAD I I l Ioseph Martonepl orest Hills, N. ,Y., to" l a r Dale A. Bauer, Tuckahoe, N. Y.- V .;jAPn i e i A l S a- 4f 5 l i I i6'Cl aims.

. -Ihis-lnvention relates tolshoulder pads for garments. It has heretofore been proposed to make shoulder pads-for garments to change the shoulder -line-inaccordance-with style or to correct sOmeimperfect'line of the figure. Nevertheless, such-shoulder pads have --had' the general imperfection-that the new-line is obviously artificial,

ungracef-ul, and fhas an unfortunate psychological reaction on -those who view it. Their artificiality is ofier'isiv to man eop1e:

nobjectof'thisinvention is to make a shoulder pad that; when} appne'dtchanges the shoulder Jifiefo'f'lth garment but makes anew shoulder line; of natural appearanceand conformity, and gives to -the g arnient a naturaldrape. 4

pads has concerned the position of the pad upon the-shoulder '"In-general they have had no satisfactory means for positioning, with the result that they are positioned too far forwardor back, or outwardly. This has arisen from the fact that the shoulder has positioned the garment and the shoulder'pad has followed the positioning of the garment. It is an object of this invention to make a shoulder pad which will position the gar- .ment in true relation -to the shoulder so that the garment line will have from'al1-viewpoints a natural semblance; v,

Another disadvantage of the prior art shoulder pads" was the construction of the cloth cover. Such pads were generally composed of av filler or stufiing enclosed within a cloth cover. I These coversf'were frequently difficult tolmake, includiil threeoreven' more piecesof cloth that had .topbesewedito'gether' to conform to the shape of thejpad. Such' pieces seldom fit the shoulder pad snugly and sometimes caused visible seams to sliow"through silkenga'rments; It is an object of this invention to construct a cover for a shoulder pad out of a single piece of cloth.

In the drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views,

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a shoulder pad constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the shoulder pad of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a transverse or end section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

, v One of the disadvanta esof prior art shoulder Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal center section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the unfolded cover of the shoulder pad.

The numeral l0 indicates a flexible and compressible body which may conveniently eniade of sponge rubber. Other materials-whicharenot flexible or not compressible may also beethployed' forexam'1fle,-' synthetic resins and ven light metals; Howevefi the preferred Torin-10f the invention is corr posec hof a'sponge rubber or similar compressible and fieziible bodyportion and a 'cover of cloth; The-cover is iridicat the numeraiu.

The M mm i ned q asara 11,

of such thickness as to be substantially 1 beneath evensilkcloth. Thus, the'line' o N shoulder padis molded into "t he form lof human body. From the edge portion 12 th pad increases inthickness toward a portion I! rch is located above the outer end of]the shoulder when -the pad is emplaced lioweven thiSjhcreasing of thickness is carried out in novel and particularly advantageous way flhiscan best be understoodin connection with Fig.1 4'. In that figure it will be observed thatthe padalqn the line Hihasa curvef that conforms to the natural 'curvature of theshoulder. Therefore, when the pad isfitted over the shoulderit rests snugly thereagainst. Thewing, portions [6,? of the pad fit snugly overthe shouldersagainst the frontfand, back thereof and tend ,to prevent the pad from being displaced. 'I'h'is'is in contra; distinction to many prior art shoulder pads which had no means to preventthem fromfassuining on the shoulder of a particular person an awkward and unnatural position. With this construction of a shoulder pad there is no possibility of -the padbeing displaced and ,evennatural deforma ticns may be entirelyjand satisfactorily Notonly, is. the ..lower medijanjline -l5 ;Q ;he pad conformed to the natural curvature -of the shoulder, but the upper median line I8 is also thus conformed. As line l5 and line l8 both meet at the upper and innermost point l2 and both have a curvature conforming to the natural curvature of the shoulder, the new shoulder line, beneath the cloth of a garment, gives the impression of a natural shoulder line.

In order to give a further natural appearance to the cloth of the garment, the shoulder pad is provided with a bulge 20' which is near the upper outer part of the pad. This bulge, being rounded, forms a natural drape in the cloth that lies upon it so that sleeves have a natural drape.

The shoulder pad is shield shaped as viewed from above, triangular with one curved side as viewed in elevation, and half moon as viewed in section.

Heretofore, the covers of such devices havev been made in several pieces, but I have invented a cover which fits more snugly than prior art covers and which is made of a single piece of cloth. This portion of the invention is shown in plan view in Fig. 5. In that view number i i indicates a piece of cloth the warp of which runs parallel to one side while the weft runs parallel to the other side. The piece of cloth is square from corner to corner, but is arcuate between corners as'indicated at 3|. A cut 32 is made on the bias from one corner to a point short of the center and a notch 33 is placed at the outer end of the cut. At the inner end of the out two short cuts 34, 35 are made approximately along the warp and the weft, respectively, and the edges along those cuts are folded back along the lines 36, 31 and sewed along lines 42-43. The lines 38, 39 are sewed together as far as the center of the pieces of cloth and the abutting hems are sewed, one next the other, along line 44. The surplus cloth between 38 and 39 may then be cut away if desired. The corner 40 is now folded upon corner 33 and the overlapped edges are sewed on lines 4 I. There is thus formed a pocket with an opening I5. Before the sewing is completed at the point of the shield, as seen in Fig. 2, the ends of the edges of the cut at point 33 are overlapped, as shown in Fig. 2, at 44, so that the stitching closes the pocket. Into this pocket there is placed, through the opening IS, the body shown in Figs. 1 to 4. In this connection the cutting of the cloth on the bias proves to be very important because the cloth of the cover when thus cut yields in those directions which permit the insertion of the body, but does not yield in directions that would cause deformation or distortion of the cloth of the overlying garment. Furthermore, the cloth is thus provided with an elasticity which causes it to conform smoothly to the body after the body has been inserted. Consequently, wrinkles underneath the pad are avoided, obviating irritation to the shoulder of the wearer, and external wrinkling is avoided so that the pad is invisible even under thin cloth.

A particular advantage of this invention is that the shoulder pad fits the shoulder in a stable manner so that the garment must conform to its shape. In this way, the shoulder pad aids in the fitting of the garment and helps to preserve its most desirable conformation and drape.

Another advantage of the invention is that the shoulder pad appears to be natural lacking the bunchiness and misplacement of former shoulder 'pads.

A further advantage is that the cloth cover and the filler of the shoulder pad conform so that there is an absence of wrinkling of the cloth.

A still further advantage is that the pad can be made in two complete parts which are assembled after manufacture.

Another advantage is in making the cover of the shoulder pad out of one piece of cloth with a minimum of sewing and a maximum of resilience.

As many widely different embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, except as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A cover for a shoulder pad consisting of a substantially square piece of cloth having bowed edges and the bias on the diagonal, said cloth being slit from a corner on the bias, straight out from the end of the slit, and folded and hemmed along the sides of the slit, the cloth being folded on the diagonal normal to the slit, sewed along the edges, and having the hems overlapped and caught at their ends.

2. A cover for a shoulder pad consisting of a substantially square piece of cloth having bowed edges and the bias on the diagonal, said cloth being slit from a corner on the bias, straight out from the end of the slit, and folded and hemmed along the sides of the slit, folded normal to the slit, and sewed opposite the fold.

3. A cover for a shoulder pad being a generally rectangular piece of cloth folded on the bias along the line joining opposed corners, slit at an angle to the fold from one of the other corners, and sewed along its overlapped edges to form a pocket having an opening made by the slit.

4. The cover of claim 3 in which the slit is partly overlapped and sewed.

5. The cover of claim 4 in which the open part of the slit is hemmed.

6. The cover of claim 3 in which the slit is partly overlapped and sewed together, and partly overlapped and not sewed together.

JOSEPH MARTONE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 652,102 Goldman June 19, 1900 2,258,937 Neilsen Oct. 14, 1941 2,329,496 Walcoff Sept. 14, 1943 2,365,280 Lahm Dec. '19, 1944 2,423,498 Hull July 8, 1947 2,431,616 Lefi Nov. 25, 1947 2,458,646 Root Jan. 11, 1949 2,509,159 Mack May 23, 1950 

